


The Darkest Path

by lungsieku



Category: Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Genre: Gen, pre-game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 20:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4113646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lungsieku/pseuds/lungsieku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alexander warned him that he’d been tainted, too far gone, too abhorrent to be saved from this nightmare. He would only have an answer if his courage proved strong enough to take him into the darkness yet again. Would he arise from perdition renewed? Could he walk that miserable path to its end?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Darkest Path

The damp cold of the corridor forced Daniel to his knees. His limbs shook under the weight of his terror, sleeplessness or self-loathing, he could not tell which. Flecks of dried blood lingered still, stuck under his nails, while his hands reeked of the musty air trapped so far below the castle. He coughed out a dry sob, unable to muster the will to push himself back up, until a moan in the murky distance forced his feet to stir.

He’d not seen Alexander for days. The nightmares had prevented a wink of rest until he’d rummaged through drawers blindly seeking laudanum, swallowing the contents of two bottles before the heavy hands of exhaustion dragged him into slumber. Searching the dusty halls by himself proved too much of a toll on his shaken mind, and in every shadow he saw the girl. The hollow echo of her footsteps followed him, and the remnants of her voice joined the cries of the murdered others that haunted him.

Daniel doused the lantern. Daylight flickered through the windows, speckled by the frost from the dreaded winter that continually battered the mountains. Ink stained his hands after all the anxious writing, and after carefully scattering the records of his crimes. All he could do now was forget. The castle crumbled in the wake of his unwavering ascent. The Shadow trailed him, bleeding through the cracks in the stone that formed Brennenburg. Nothing remained.

He’d once thought death to be an escape, but what dreadful hereafter awaited a man such as him? No hope of salvation endured unless he forged it for himself, proved his innocence and made sure the one truly responsible for this insanity paid dearly. Daniel had repented, dared to confess his sins from the bottom of the pit. At times he’d wondered if a God could ever accept his tainted soul after his crimes, if one had even followed him to such a dreaded place. Who was to debate the condition of his spirit? Alexander warned him that he’d been tainted, too far gone, too abhorrent to be saved from this nightmare. He would only have an answer if his courage proved strong enough to take him into the darkness yet again. Would he arise from perdition renewed? Could he walk that miserable path to its end?

Unable to answer, Daniel swallowed his bitter regrets and washed them down with the faint taste of rose. He dismembered his thoughts and severed their ties to reality the same way he’d once cut through skin and bone, leaving only his still beating, still aching heart to guide him along the obscure trails of remembrance. Only one would ascend. Only one could climb to freedom as the wretched fragments of Brennenburg crumbled at his heels. Daniel would learn, through blood and loathing, that only the darkest path leads to the light.

**Author's Note:**

> My first Amnesia fanfic! It's a short one, but I'd love feedback.


End file.
